Hundreds of Israeli protesters descended on the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza to block humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip for the third consecutive day. The protests have been growing daily.
The protesters, including families of hostages being held captive by Hamas in Gaza, are demanding that all aid be cut off until some 136 remaining captives are freed.
In a statement, the protesters said they bypassed police checkpoints set up to prevent their arrival. The Biden administration reportedly complained to Israel about the protests blocking the shipments and demanded that Israel ensure they go through.
There is very little support in Israel, be it among the civilians, the military or the government, for these shipments to Gaza that the US forced Israel to facilitate.
On Wednesday, the protesters from the “Tzav [Order] 9” movement demanded that “no aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns, no equipment be transferred to the enemy.”
Danny, the brother of Itzik Algert, one of the hostages in Hamas captivity said at the protests, “As long as logistical aid enters here – the war will continue and the abductees will not return. We have become the logistical arm of Hamas.”
The movement’s name is a reference to the Tzav [Order] 8 emergency notice that army reservists receive for mobilization outside the framework of regular reserve duty. Since Hamas’s October 7 massacres in communities near the Gaza border, around 360,000 reserve soldiers have been mobilized.
The demonstrators also include relatives of soldiers killed in action in the Gaza Strip, reservists released from combat and civilians evacuated from the northern and southern frontiers.
Traffic officials said that dozens of trucks turned around and drove away from Kerem Shalom due to Wednesday’s protest. Some of the trucks rerouted through Egypt and entered Gaza via the Rafah (Rafiach) crossing.
On Dec. 15, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved the opening of the Kerem Shalom crossing for the transfer of aid into the Strip after intense U.S. and international pressure. All the Israeli crossings to Gaza had been shuttered after the Oct. 7 massacre, with only Egypt’s Rafah crossing from Sinai remaining open.
Despite sharing a border with Gaza, Egypt is refusing to allow Gazan refugees to leave Gaza and enter the Sinai.
The latest protests followed previous attempts to block the passage of aid to Gaza from Israel, including on Jan. 9 and Dec. 21. Organizers of the Dec. 21 effort said was mounted to stop “Hamas trucks” and “Nazi trucks” from entering the coastal enclave.
Hamas is stealing much of the aid intended for Gazan civilians and redirecting it to terrorists hiding in tunnels.
Rabbi Dov Lior ruled that protesters may also block the trucks on Shabbat, as the delivery of fuel and food to the enemy during war falls under the category of “pikuach nefesh,” a danger to life.
The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit said that Sunday saw 260 aid trucks enter Gaza, including 139 passing through Kerem Shalom, the most on any single day since the war began on Oct. 7.
At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. The number of men, women, children, soldiers and foreigners held captive in Gaza by Hamas is now believed to be 136.
JewishPress.com News Desk contributed to this report.
